thank you okay good evening I call to order the meeting of the Hamilton wam Regional school committee on Thursday March 6th 2025 at 7 pm and we'll begin I uh by inviting you to join us in the Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al to the flag of the
United States of America to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible okay Mr Tracy do we have the zoom up for uh citizens comments yes link to the school
committee agenda is not live on our oh that's strange it was earlier it was I just signed in on that yeah if you go through the scho thing yeah yeah there hold up let we're going
to while you get the zoom up we'll do the little troubleshooting to make sure never mind it's okay it's the wrong date okay thank you no worries they're living in the future that's how I got into this one here we go you're good I'm just okay um all right it looks like there's no
one on Zoom or correct okay um so uh next up is uh citizens comments this is an opportunity for any citizen who wishes to uh speak to the committee to um provide a comment um I we ask that um
uh citizens make sure that when you approach the podium that you begin by um telling us your name and spelling your name so that we get it correct for the minutes um we ask you to limit your comments to 3 minutes um and please know
that this is an opportunity for um you to speak and us to listen it's a chance for you to be heard um and we're here to listen um I will ask uh Amy are you prepared to be a time keeper okay um is there anyone in the audience that like to
speak all right please appro approach the podium yep okay three minutes here we go um my name is David Smith I live at 20 27 Home Street in Hamilton um I'm here as chair of the town of
Hamilton Board of Health um first I want to thank you for giving me my three minutes purpose of my being here is to deliver a letter which I have just done um at the start of the meeting uh the letter that conveys the results of discussions and
votes taken um at last week's meeting of the joint Boards of the town of Hamilton and town of Wenham Board of boards of Health um the subject of that letter is the adoption of ashray standard 241
for indoor air quality and the proposed new Elementary School the discussions and the votes that were taken uh concern Indo equality mainly in the proposed new um elementary school project uh the letter
self-explanatory uh we expect no action by the board tonight or by the committee or the administration tonight what we do expect is that um the the letter will prompt uh some open public Dialogue on the subject and
uh give you some basis for consideration of our recommendation uh we felt that the subject deserved open public debate because um it of course directly affects the health of students uh staff and
faculty that would be using the new facility I do want to point out an important caveat to this in the discussions that we had and in the votes that we took at the Joint board meeting we recognized that one member of the wenam Board of Health that's David
Frankl who's here tonight uh serves also on this committee and we were very concerned about either the fact or the appearance of a conflict of interest in David's role on the school committee and his role on the wenden board of health
so we asked David to recuse himself from all the discussions on this subject and to abstain from voting and that is exactly what happened he did not get involved in the discussion he did not vote so in the letter we mentioned there was a unanimous of uh approval of the
vote to make this statement to the school committee it was all three members of the Hamilton Board of Health and the two voting members of the wendham Board of Health excluding David um 30 seconds look forward to it's three minutes we look forward to a followup
with you on this thank you thank you oh by the way I had no admin help this afternoon so I had to hand you hard copies tomorrow morning I will email to both of you the electronic file copy of that letter thank you thank you okay uh Mr Tracy still nobody in the
zoom room okay and it doesn't appear that there's any further comment in the room here um so at 7:05 we will close uh public comment okay uh next up um I am actually going to read a portion of our school
committee protocols uh as elected members of the Hamilton one Regional school committee we including the superintendent accept the high honor and trust that has been placed in us to ensure that the students of the district receive the best education possible to that end we hereby
commit to the following in the conduct of our business number 11 a school committee meeting is a business meeting that is held in public not a public meeting the committee will make every effort to ensure meetings are effective and
efficient okay uh next up Amy is going to read a portion of the school committee mission statement the Hamilton wam Regional School District school committies mission is to ensure our schools create graduates with a passion for lifelong learning together with the
critical skills needed to maximize their potential the Hamilton wam Regional school committee will lead and inspire a district that attracts and retra retains high quality Educators by acknowledging and respecting their expertise and
professionalism thank you um does anyone have any items that they'd like to hold from the consent agenda no uh Jen would you be willing to make a motion I move that we accept the consent agenda
as written do we have a second second second by Amy kumberg um all those in favor that is unanimous of the four members present and the motion passes um okay next up is the uh meet
meet of the meeting which is um the town meeting flyer um I don't know whether Eric you want to start or Amy yeah uh I to do it yeah good okay so each year we put together a flyer
usually a single page two-sided um to help the public to understand not only the school department budget but also any other items that may be on uh the warrant at their respective Town meetings uh the flyer that is
attached uh currently is a first draft of um what we found to just be like very similar to what we've done in the past um not there's not a lot of fanciness to it and uh it helps us to kind of tell the story fairly easily on the back side
is the elementary school project by the numbers um some of the feedback we have received is it was it's a little bit wordy this is really a document that is only shared during Town meetings so it's kind of a One-Stop shot um uh and so you
and I did a little more brainstorming and uh came up with a a secondary version um that looks a little bit differently in the front um and slightly different in the back so we'll start with the first one just maybe get some comments on the first one that's okay do
you want to well I just want I I I don't have I don't want to talk about this yet I just want to make sure that because I know I wasn't clear I wanted to make sure that the rest of the committee is clear about the timing that um that we so we have time it even though the
agenda says approve the town meeting flyer we actually have time to bring it back to one the our next meeting and we would still have time I just want to make sure because I had not been clear on that so I don't know if other people were confused on that so so on the 20th
we have an opportunity to see a next like final draft approve that one and get it to the moderator correct exactly I must I found the first confusing based on what I had recalled
um it it talks about getting a 51.2% um reimbursement um but I guess that caveat is it's of reimbursable cost because we're actually only getting like 38% back of the gross cost is that
correct yes 51% of the reimbursable costs right both both things are correct both they're both correct what is not you know can you give us a broad description of what's not reimbursable sure things like um uh closets so storage closets storage
units um places that exceed the the state's numbers so the initial design for 740 uh student school had 32 classrooms because the state uses 23 students uh average in a classroom so if you do simple math 740 divided by 23 is
32 classrooms our Ed plan uh tends to is is designed to keep what we currently have uh average class sizes at the elementary school of 19 and um kind of forces us to add a few more classes so those extra three classrooms become become
non-reimbursable um so those are types of spaces that would not be reimbursed uh it's based on a total square footage minus things like uh actually believe it or not teacher lunchrooms are not reimbursable uh adult uh preparation
rooms for classes are not reimbursable so there's a lot of things that are that you would think would be automatic that are not so can I Eric and Eric and can I just interrupt the two of you um I I don't this is actually I think this is
important I wondered if we want to sort of back up and maybe have Amy give us an overview of the document before we get into the I I because I also have I was just confused because what always stuck in my head was oh no no no I think it's
super back of the project and 38% big difference I I wasn't trying I I really just want to make sure Amy gets an opportunity to sort of talk about the like 3,000 foot view first and then we can talk about all the details of the
sure um er do you have the other version one that has the text on it do we want to look at that one is that this one this one yeah so the two so the draft that's on the exhibit I have updated now there's two options the first one is more similar to
the draft that's on the exhibit with a more in depth look at the FY 26 uh other total revenue breakdown so that text on the right is new um but this is similar to what we had last year with just kind
of how the budget is constructed that's thank you the assessments the breakdown of the assessments um what the budget covers just kind of at a bird's eye view and then just a call to vote at the bottom with an Amper stand so everybody
understands they need to vote at both town meeting and at Town election and then the back side of version one has oh this is version two which is fine we can talk about this one you can go back to version one right here just going in numerical this this is the original that
was on the original so this one is definitely more of a novel format meaning it's long um with a lot of text where I tried to put together a lot of the frequently asked questions that we get on the left side and then on the
right is a breakdown of the project cost and the responsibility for the different parts of the cost and then a chart two charts of what this mean could mean for my taxes with an average single family home breakdown just so people can kind
of look at the numbers um and then at the bottom left we have a QR code to the elementary project page so and I'm are you oh well should I just go through because I do want to say a couple clarifying things but go ahead and then version two is identical except
the long form the first page is identical the back um there's a nice image now of the school project rendering and instead of that long form text are kind of bullet points with the same exact content just kind of broken
down into um organized subheads okay so thank you so I just want for clarity sake I just want to make sure everyone understands I know I think the committee understands but just if if anyone else is watching at home
that they understand that this represents only the piece of paper that people are getting at town meeting it doesn't represent like in other words we have all kinds of other information if you use that QR code that goes into so
this is this isn't getting you know distributed anywhere it's it's really for like you walk into town meeting and you want to have something in your hand that you can read and understand I just want to make sure um is the committee so my thought and
Amy I will take but my thought was to maybe take it like start with this page page one and maybe have first questions or comments about the sort of visual presentation and then have questions and comments regarding the actual content
and then maybe do the same thing on the second sure that that will work does that work instructor sure um this is the first one so the first on the agenda the one that this is one on the agenda and then so everyone's clear that there are two versions one is the one that was on the agenda and then the other one if you can put the second one up there because
we don't have that one the second one the Revis that one cuz we don't have that one yeah that one isn't yeah came out late this afternoon we we'll update it it's fine I mean that's why we're doing this discussion option exactly it's discussion so all right so Dive Right In what do people think questions
comments about just the visual look of it I have thoughts but I don't want to just I want other people to talk Jen is there a way to put a figure there that shows the percent increase in between 2024 and
2025 um because those are big numbers if you just look at them out of context it's on the right hand side of this version on the second version you don't have that one yet this is what they updated can I can I can you make it bigger yeah let me oh yeah there we go
Jen do you mean 25 to 26 just to make sure 20 yeah this budget to the last budget yeah where's the percent increase on the right on up there third line see right here four 4.53 okay so we didn't keep it under the
2 and a half% no no no I thought that was the goal with taking with using the excess and efficiency was to keep it under the override it's still it's still under the override because we're only a percentage
of the overall budget but are Hamilton and whenham going to put those into the overall budget yeah there's no are they going to consider them separate because sometimes they do and sometimes they don't yeah it depends it depends on each community so right
there's no override in either Community both communities have said they don't need an override we talked to both okay yeah we're okay that was the reason just to not have to be in an override situation yeah no yep that's why version two we added this little paragraph to give some clarity to
that um I I wanted to just and then other people I just wanted to say one thing I really liked about this the visual of this P this page in particular is that um for me it feels like there's some consistency year to year and it I think
that I like that like that people are looking at something that kind of looks familiar um I don't know if you felt like that was true but I felt like it was true it felt like it had some familiarity with um so you know how I
feel about brand consistency David did you have thoughts about the visual on this before we move on to the content on this page I think I would agree it's a bit bit cluttered that um that the the percentage
gain or rise this next so could be in isolation and then maybe place the rest of the text put it down somewhere I can't see the whole whole document here
um it's yeah it was crowded I mean it's not your fault it was just a lot of stuff so are you saying you want to pull out the increase as a separate is there is there the flip on the print out
version of I've got must be an old the old version the one the one linked doesn't have the paragraph on the right the one that's on the agenda you should have a copy of and it's just blank over there on the right hand side I see it look you're looking at it right now we added it today late this afternoon we
added this part of it to give more clarity so I guess I want to I'm G to I heard Jen saying and and maybe David you're saying about to put that 4.53 larger and I I actually it's
interesting because to Jen that was actually my first comment when I first looked at this I said why don't we have the percent somewhere but as I look at it I'm not sure that it really I think as I read it I don't know
that that's I do think it should be on there I don't know that it needs to be a bigger only because I think what's more important is the why like in other words the increase is driven primarily and
and you know it says by our negotiated I mean I think this is kind of wordy I guess what I'm saying is I like the idea of like it's by you know it's maintaining competitive wages is essential to attracting and retaining talent in our district I think that's really important so I do think it's
important to tie that 4.53 to the the reason that that's the main driver but I don't know that I that we need this is just me I don't know that I need that 4.53 to be in one of those big bold blocks what's on the other side of
the flyer is it blank the other side of the flyer is and it's on your in your agenda is the um the information about the school building that you were just asking about for some reason I've got when whoever printed this out got oh is yours not printed security plan for the modern un
trip oh so I was trying to you know square that can I email the you just had it because you were commenting on it yeah you were asking about it it's this yeah on the the other side is the back you have it in your left hand no go back to page one is it is
that is it on there just flip over the whole thing you just commenting on it I that's because I was looking at this oh you you have the original version print out I have my well I'd like to hang on to these two oh yeah um not but I can I can pass them oh so this is this is going to be the other side is what
you're saying is yeah yeah you have it yes right right right do you want to that's one PR out no I don't I'm good all right um sorry so yeah and we and we haven't gotten to that side so we're gonna so
we'll talk about that side but yeah so one side is as we always have it's about the budget and then the second side is going to be about the school building project what if we moved the paragraph that's in the right hand column to the bottom and then put the
please vote running down that right hand column with the circles just I'm just curious why like what problem are you trying to solve you want to make it bigger I think you could make it bigger uh down at the bottom
than you could over on the side or maybe bullet point it so that you're saying the same thing but in a shortened format Could You Bullet pointed on the side what if so I I agree that I think it needs to live with the reasoning what if
it was just bold I know what was bold that paragraph on the right 4.53% increase and we could even bold the pieces that are the reasoning why yeah I like that so we're pulling out like I just hate to elevate more
things visually because at some point they all just compete if I'm understanding you right you're saying just bold the 4.5 and then maybe bold the maintaining competitive wages is essential to attracting and retaining top talent in our district yep yeah another way just to think about it is I
think you could get rid of this pie chart and just put the percentage in in the uh in the square and that buys you you know another couple of inches of real to to Spread spread out the explanation it's a question though people often ask
at town meeting yeah I mean we could put it in well yeah but all you have to do is put the percentage in oh I see what you're oh I see oh buys you some space yeah you could also put the 4.5% at the top with the main number if
it's want oh like call it out in the big box up top you're trying to call it basically you you're trying to buy white space well I'm I'm trying to buy white space because I feel like this is really crowded so yeah like we could put the percentages in the
boxes um I think that could work and I can try a version of it and we can just pick one at the next meeting I okay I yeah I don't I mean I don't know that we're gonna
but I really like the idea of the Bolding the highlighted points I I you know this is I'm going to trust the creative minds I kind of like the little play chart but that but no I do too yeah
you know I'm not sure that's I will take advice from other others I think it's just a nice quick visual if you don't get to reading the numbers but there are a lot of circles and boxes
so I'm not opposed to it okay did anyone have any other content question questions on this first page content on that first page there if anybody had any other yeah go ahead Eric I just want to suggest taking out on the left-and side
paragraph under where it says budget highlights the last words for all of our students it basically if you read it you assume that all kids have a summer school experience so just end it with it enhances our
summer school experience period yep done because it's not for all students it's actually a very specific group of students so y just so we don't mislead anybody right because it's like a list of things so yeah I think that's right that's yeah that's easy yeah and it gives you a little bit more Whit space I love Whit
space people are afraid of it okay right any other okay great now thank you for doing it oh yeah sure oh wait we have got a second Page's more
oh wait don't thank me yet um so yeah the back the two versions the one that's on the agenda is the long form copy which I think is really long like taxes the long form and
then the version two which Eric has up on the screen kind of bullet points the same content yeah can you just scroll it so I can read all the yep I would change the picture I like the picture say
more I would show it a close-up picture of the actual learning environment like with people in it like classroom you mean like a classroom yeah bring it to the point where parents who are at school committee can picture their kids actually learning in these really nice
environments um I like the overview don't get me wrong I think it looks great but I don't think it's as personalized a picture as it would be if we showed kids in one of the new classrooms I like that yeah we have we do have some renderings I know y um so I
I think this visually even though there's still a lot of text here I think this visually looks a lot like I don't look to be honest the other one I sort of look looked at like oh my gosh I have to read this whole thing this I don't feel that way I think the the Bold it's a little shorter and it's got the Bold I
like I feel it looks more readable to me um to David's Point show me on here where it says the reimbursable amount it maybe you've edited it to be different not worded in the same way um it's at the top it's the msba contribution on
that yeah but I I actually like I actually like if it it is different I mean to David's point when he asked at the beginning about the percentage I think this is actually a lot clearer that's how much money they're giving us $49 million is not a percent on this one
right that's I I sort of think that's just clearer than because because when if when David asked that question at the beginning and you know he was saying like it's a genuine question because it both things are true there it's the 51 reimbursable of the you but it gets
confusing I think this isn't confusing $49 million is $49 million it's not confusing that's how much it is plus remember I'll do a presentation in part of my presentation is going to be explaining that piece because the warrant article specifically says
51.8 so right that's the only reason I would say in the meeting you'll see 51.2 a if you did simple math you'd realize it it's less than that here's why right we've answered that question probably five times in the past three days too from people fig yeah um and we just just posted something on the FAQ related to
that so maybe we can use some of that language in my presentation as well so what if we said State reimbursement msba will contribute approximately $49 million which is 5128 per of reimbursable costs well I
was not saying that I was saying I like it without it I I was saying I think that's what I was saying is I think that this is a good edit because I think you you've got it already in the right hand yeah yeah yeah I see I'm sorry I'm not I just assume you wanted to add things no
the left hand side just explains that msba is paying for part of the reimbursable costs yes okay not the non-reimbursement got it sorry I thought you were no I think that's I think it's good I think it's an upgrade from the original it's what that was what my comment was I think that I think yeah I
think that I was saying that what David was saying about the original I think has been improved upon here is my opinion got it um the only thing I would be another way of doing this is is um in
in that right hand column just next to the 49 m779 whatever put the percentage 38% and the next to the 92 486 688 um whatever the whatever the
reciprocal of that is what is it 62% David can you talk to your mic because I can't hear I'm sorry yeah um I put put the percentage that that represents just next to next to it either in Brackets or whatever but so I'm I'm yeah I was I'm gonna say Amy's
thing tell me more like I'm not quite sure tell me more about why you feel like the percentage like how does that because I'm not feeling that but I want to hear like how does that help well it's it's just I mean I hope most of the people reading this are
mathematically gifted enough to be able to do that calculation in their head but um but it does matter be because a lot of the rhetoric early on with this project was that it was going to be more like 47% and there's a a whole not very
clearly explained additional expense that's not reimbursable and uh so I I don't think you really or do you did when you edited this because I'm not sure I've got the latest version it's up there yeah we none of us have it's up
there yeah so I think the question will come up is what changed what what the expect the expectation of what would be reimbursable seems to have changed and and I I think you're right that that will be a question I think you're
absolutely right and I also just want to say while it is I do understand that it is confusing and that I do think that someone from the public may be confused about that I do want to say it's been ex that the superintendent has been explicit all
along about explaining when they went through those percentages every single time saying it's of of the approved you know reimbursable costs and we talked on and on and on about those numbers being variable I know David PLO meant it
mentioned it many times in this meeting that does not mean that it won't come up as a question because I think it will come up in a question but just to be clear it's not that something changed it's that like it's always been a certain percentage of the reimbursable
costs and that there always were going to be costs that were not reimbursable and it will be in my my presentation like I'll break it down in my presentation this is this is you know if you the 51.2 8% is what's in the warrant article yeah so I'll explain the
difference in my presentation that's part of the initial presentation on this okay Hotel meetings can you scroll down to the bottom of that so so I I'm wondering
about because you're the two questions on the bottom are about questions that we commonly get from members of the public like wouldn't it what shouldn't we just repair it instead right y i I must admit I have a problem with the cost of
repair of the individual schools because as far as I could understand from the dialogue I've had with Eric that we no no specific costings were done it was that those are estimates based on rules rules of fum not a Bottoms Up assessment
that would say take uh new facilities managers growing checklist and and and some other kinds of of very specific individual items and saying you know if we did these things
we the schol would be capable of doing blah blah blah blah blah blah I don't think at at least I've not seen that exercise done I Sor I've queried Derek on this all all he's come back with is said this is the amount per square foot
that that msba says is the rule or The Architects I don't know who uh is the rule of thumb for bringing these schools up to code but that's not defining what the specifics are that would be specific to us so well I'll let Eric speak to I
mean you have to remember that when we went through a long time ago when we went through the process and coming up with all those different options you know that's all part of feasibility it's in order to get a an a detail you would have to do a feasibility
study if you know there words to get the level of detail that we have right now if you were going to do a repair in other words it costs money to get that level I Eric you can speak to that I'm right if you go back all the way SE
question about this all the back all the way back to the beginning of the feasibility the feasibility we had we had at the beginning of feasibility 14 options on the table of which those were estimated from ADA compliance and code up uh Code Compliance all the way
through to building different types of options additions additions and Renovations uh new buildings for a single school and combined buildings across uh the different sites each of those options was weighed out at the school building committee um including
the repair option for both the Winthrop and the Cutler uh Cutler's probably had the most in-depth because that's the the target school if you will where people have gone through and looked for um they've done soil testing around the outside they've done testing on the inside so that's that's probably the the
cleanest but yeah the number is $774 per square foot um of buildings that's what we're getting from um our OPM based on the their conversations with both the msba and other opms that are currently doing projects around the
state so my question was actually going to be a little bit different so I I started and then I don't know if that did you feel like you got your question answered yeah I do I'm not happy with it but I understand where he's coming from okay so my question was actually a little was going to be a little bit different and this is kind of to the
everyone I so when I'm looking at this I'm trying you know we're so immersed in this and we've been listening and talk talking and answering questions for such a long time and this is a common question that comes up a lot about couldn't we just repair instead but I'm thinking about this if if a person this
is genuinely a question for the committee if you were walking into town meeting and you really didn't have hardly any information about this I'm wondering if you got to this and thought of cost of repairs if it's confusing are you thinking that
like we're repairing something in other words I I I don't like I don't know I I'm curious about whether it's super clear that we're saying like repairs were investigated and then not P
like yeah I just don't know I I'm all I'm tempted and I'm I'm I'm open-minded on this but I'm tempted to say maybe we don't need these two paragraphs on here because or I think we do I think that'll be cool or change it from cost of repairs
to cost of bringing the schools up to code well the ver the verbiage used on our documents are ada8 compliance and code upgrades right that's what we've used all along no no no I I I we could use that instead of the word repair I guess what I'm trying to
say I'm not and I'm I'm not advocating that we have I'm just trying to say would a person who hasn't been following this would they understand that this thing that says cost of repairs is not what we're doing this is
an alternative that people are talking about but it isn't something that's being presented to them it's not an option so I want I I'm concerned that like someone might not are you following what I'm saying like that like they might think what if we phrase it as why not
rep and that's and I just don't I don't know I don't know that I want to get down that road because that's kind of like take them off I mean David saying they're misleading you take them both off you were saying it was misleading to take them off what's misleading about I think I think the Mis the the feedback
I've had is that there's this flies in the face of the belief of an awful lot of people that it's possible um from a financial point of view for a lot less dollars to have improve sufficient improvements not to some unspecified
code um and un and undocumented detailed plan that we don't don't have any alternative documented it uh alternative plans what we have is a rule of thumb based statement that the individual bringing up to code without specifying
the codes uh would cost a fortune whereas a lot of people don't believe it they believe that if you put a new roof on and upgrade the HVAC systems and and do some basic repairs it would be a lot less now that you know that's obviously
disputable but we haven't got to my knowledge we haven't G through that exercise and that's going to be at the root cause of an awful lot of people not wanting to vote for this so the problem with just doing spot repairs is once you
start bringing a building up to code everything has to come up to code you can't just pull the HVAC system up to code everything in the entire building as soon as you start bringing one thing up to code everything has to go up tood
it triggers a requirement that you meet code what code you're referring to what Cod the building codes right when you like when you build a building it you be you meet the current building codes But as time goes on the building codes change and evolve but you're not required to continually update your building to meet the new building codes
but if you put a certain amount of money into the building I don't remember what the triggering amount is if you put a certain amount of money into a building as a repair and then it triggers the requirement that you meet all the building codes now and
so and how much how much is that amount what is a percentage of the building it's a percentage of the value of the building so once you hit repairs of a percentage of the value of the building you automatically trigger ADA compliance uh things that need to be
done so I just want to I think this is important to hear but I also want to remind us that what we're really talking about is the the document I have some ideas about how to solve these problems so I just for one thing I just want to say I got
these figures from the school building website with the chart of all the different versions and these were the base repair numbers just to be clear yep um I wrote in version one the final
paragraph We are frequently asked why don't we just repair both the WIP and color schools I agree this is the number one question and that I get because I think when people are talking about um improving a building they're thinking of it the same way they would improve their
home and so and that makes sense you know that's what people's experiences are but I think that just giving a little bit of background info about what the requirements are through the state might be important so my idea to solve this is the end of this rather than be
more of a bullet point maybe we I can truncate this paragraph a little bit but maybe we replace it with a paragraph to address that issue because I do think that is the number one question um so I don't know if you if we want to read that last paragraph to
decide or you want me to take a stab we have we have um some verbage on the FAQ site related to that question answered it many times so you could probably look at yeah I I think that's a good idea I think I I I'm going to leave it up to you to
troubleshoot that I mean my my feedback is that I actually really like the way that the one that's up on the screen is formatted with like each thing having a bold point I don't know if there's any way of fitting it into that format because I do really like the way that
that is um because someone could scroll down and be like I'm interested in teacher support and so like you know um so um but I I think that does meet the concerns both ways like that people are saying that that's a very common
question and concern and and and I and I'm open to if you all think that I'm not right in having that concern about it saying cost of repairs I know you mean I agree with you yeah I could be a little confusing about I just think you know we again not but I just we're so in
it but not everyone is and so I can see someone reading that and be like wait a minute cost of repairs 45 million but over here you're saying it's 142 mil like I don't understand like CU you know so I just want to think good question is
the year One what what is the year of the year one is that 2028 20 either 28 or 2 it would be either 28 or 29 the first year that you'd see it on your tax bill is that the question cor yeah that's a great that's a good question that I haven't
actually heard a lot of people asking that question that's an important point we can add that to the we sent it out um yesterday the charts that went out yesterday have the actual I think I started them at 20 28 yeah it really is a conversation we have with the towns
when they when they start the the funding um so you have9 28 or 29 is for the the bulk of it there will probably be a small interest payment in 27 okay because when okay I'm going just take your word
for that it doesn't matter we want to put what do we think the r is going to be right now 4.5 is their estimate we want to put the year under Year One just to give people a little bit of a landmark is it 28 or well that's the problem putting it terms years is that
you don't want to tell so but is that something that you're going to address in your in your remarks yes because as that's come up in both fincom meetings um the accuracy of the figures over time
can't be like perfected because the shift changes so the assessments including for debt are based on the annual shift percentage rates so we're currently using this year shift in the percentage
to figure out this Bond because we have no idea what the shift will be in 20 28 or 29 it's it it moves around as we all know I mean it's slightly different it's not dramatically different but um that's been the concern all along of the fincom to say you know we understand people
want to see 20 years but it's not very accurate after after year one and even year one is really dependent on what the shift is right of the at the time of the assessment I I guess I'm I would rather not put a year on there if there's any
chance that the year is going to be 27 instead of 28 I don't think that I think that that's why we removed it and started yeah I think it's you know it's important information and I think um you know it's good to have people understand that I think the shift is
same thing that like this is year one this the information is much more accurate in year one than it is in year 20 but it's you know because the shift can change over 20 years but I mean the total is is accurate the
total between the two towns is accurate it's just a matter of like is it going to get shifted a little bit one way or the other between the two towns I mean that could happen and we know it moves back yeah it moves back and forth so I think that they more more going to be interested in is when when do I need to start
paying more taxes right and do I plan to stay in town because that's too much or do I right and so I think that I I agree I think that's really important and so I wouldn't want I wouldn't just me I would even though we anticipate that the year is
2028 if it I wouldn't want to put that on there if there's a chance that it could be 2027 because that I would want that to be clear that this is one of the many factors that are V potentially variable and it depends on this you know you
could put in that this could start in as early as 27 or as late as7 is just the interest payment just to clarify and it depends on the town I think they deserve that specificity I do too I just don't I think it's like there's there's so much
information that needs to be provided we are just deciding which goes on this document versus what gets presented in the presentation um just because this is kind of one short just people see it for some people see this for the first time
right believe it or not put it out everywhere and that and that is definitely true I mean I you know we' like I said a thousand times we're so immersed in it but there's absolutely other things at town meeting that you know I fully admit there'll be something
else at town meeting that'll be for me it'll be the first time I'm looking at it I mean that not everybody can't be up on every single thing so um did you oh I like I have one more thing y um should we change estimates as
of to March instead of February at the bottom of the chart uh or is that number no because they can't they made those in they made those in February February and the board voted February 26th got it on that those actual numbers the msba board right
those are and but and also I think both fincom did their work in yes everybody us the same chart we've tried to all use the same exact debt chart that Vinnie had received from our um debt people sounds good our bond
agent um right so we'll twe get and bring it back or so yeah and and then I will say unlike tonight's meeting I will say next time we really do need to be in a place where we can you know either approve and get it
out or make a suggestion that's easily fixable because we won't have time to see it again I do have a question though last meeting we talked a little about using this to get information out whether through like a mailer or handouts is that something we want to do
do we feel like what we're we've gotten out already is enough just because we talked about it last time I feel like yeah it's addressable I mean I I don't know what do you think Eric I mean I I feel like that I've seen a bunch of things that
have been getting pushed out that have a lot of this information that doesn't have to be so crammed into one page you know like it's hard to make it all on one page it is I don't know I don't think there's anything bad about putting this out I
just think we can put it out I mean sometimes we'll give it out at the senior centers like we'll leave copies at the senior centers just so they have them in advance so in that case do like like we want to make these edits so in that case do we are we waiting
until the 20th to approve it and hand them out yeah okay March 20th we we need to approve them we could approve it if there's still minor tweaks we could approve it depending the with the changes and then on the 20
uh3 is when I've been asked to get the uh final document to the moderators okay that's good for appr be approved by the moderators that's like two weeks where people can have it in hand before town meeting okay and again it's not the only it's not the only source right in
other words I I felt like that some of the stuff that got pushed out this week there was some good information that you know um including some tax information um yeah we put out tax charts that people can actually look at the
approximate value of their house at for the whole 20 years um and now I will uh take the second one that we cleaned up this afternoon and make sure it's on as an exhibit on this agenda so everybody has it if you want
to take a look at it and let Amy know of thoughts that may come up later ahead of time yep ahead of time yeah that's great okay anybody else have anything else I don't think so right Amy you think you have the information you need yeah I do thank you okay pictures in
case I drop these in audle all right moving on uh I don't think we have anything on finance and operations do we Vinnie gets a night off all right uh Capital Finance our next meeting is in March and
I just had the date um March 17 2025 okay that's coming right up next week maybe y or maybe not no the week after okay great thank you uh
policy we have a meeting on the 12th at 7 um Jen Janelle will send that out we just confirmed it today excellent all right 12 of March yes on Zoom at 7M okay
uh negotiations has nothing to report we have not met um you all saw um can I just have like verbal confirmation that you've all actually looked at the secretary report that David sent out yes yes made a list David did you take a
look at that no I didn't I didn't notice it so David uh PLO sent we talked about it last meeting David PLO sent it out via email it's a spreadsheet um and it would be really good if everyone could confirm that they actually looked at it and took a stab at
trying to find any of the missing minutes that you may or may not have if you have missing minute if you have some please fill in the chart to say that you have it but then also send them along to David um or let David know I guess he's going to give us information about how
he wants to rece correct I don't recall getting an email from him at all so um go H it down I can send it out again okay that' be great um um it was sent out on the
27th of January was it no February and then he resent after last meeting too um that was TN oh okay that was yeah he so he he sent it out then he resent it um and um there are sort of a
smattering of minutes that people might have and then there are definitely executive session minutes that would be really good to make sure we have yeah I marked a couple the ones from Capital Finance back in 2017 that was before my time no there's some there's there before everybody's
time they went back in time before before we were all any of us were here but um but yeah and and please do look like I I looked at all of them and I was like as an example I think I found one for unknown reasons like Amy wrote it
but I have it in my files so like great you know like I didn't think I was responsible for it and I wasn't but I have it so please take a note take a moment um all right uh Eric do you have a superintendent report uh yeah just two
quick things here I have um the week of uh the 17th of March we will be celebrating neuro diversity week um that will be really focused on um the elementary level this year uh with the Pres presenter me Thompson she'll be
presenting Nob brain is the same um we'll do that with our younger kids we also have the districtwide um fundraiser with the police and fire and five Sons Pizza Pizza to uh raise funds to support autistic students and
students with disability in the district any money that's raised goes to the CPAC CPAC in turn uses that money to pay for things like this presenter that we'll be bringing in um second thing is a followup on Deca they went to the states
last week 98 kids we had 12 state champion trophies 20 State finalist medallions seven medallions for the top score on an exam or role play and it was quite a quite a weekend so we have a number of kids that will be heading out
to the the Nationals um few weeks actually that's all I have thank you anybody have questions for Eric no that's awesome yeah what how's the absm like at the moment what what do you mean well you
know there's a lot of influenza going around in the school I'm just curious you seeing any any lift in the last month month and a half two we've been we've been running roughly the same attendance we run between 90 and
95% um even after vacations when you know sickness comes in so yeah we have seen the flu we've seen um stomach virus we've seen uh we're dealing with uh kind of ups and downs goes around different schools but yeah we do we do have it we
are we have dealt with it but our tenance is fairly consistent along the way okay okay um I do not have a chair report um unless anyone has any questions for
me I have no questions okay does anyone have topic for future meeting uh approving the to meeting fire okay that that will be on there next meeting we will definitely have that on there yeah I think we should put the um Board of
Health's recommendation on the agenda for discussion um we can look at that I've just gotten the um letter now I it um we'll just sort of look at whether it's more appropriate here or as um at the school building committee um so we
can talk about that yeah I think I think Dana can we get sent copies of that because you're you and got the only copies of correct right I assume he'll send it electronically but I could scan it even you still put that on the agenda do do put what on the agenda this
letter that David Smith dropped off no no no you mean because he handed it to us it can't go on this agenda because the the right that's what I'm asking we don't no we couldn't put it on this agenda because that would appear to future people like that we had it ahead
of time which we didn't so we wouldn't do that yeah no I I think actually should be on both agendas the school building okay so I we will it's deliberately directed gather to both okay um I will we can talk and we'll look at that
and I haven't read the letter I so we'll understand see okay um I'm sorry what did you say Jen no I said what I was about the making sure we all got a copy oh okay I thought there was a topic for future meeting in there um no you'll yes I will definitely for forward the letter
to you I'll have Janel on tomorrow um all right anybody else have any topics for future meetings I I have um yep probably nice meeting the meeting after we do have two policies that we need to adjust okay um one per the state
and one we want to enhance a policy um the first one is going to be uh some adjustments to the bullying policy for the district we had a review um back in January and they made some suggestions of a couple of things
to add to our policy so we've sent that to our attorneys we're just waiting for it to come back so once I get it back I will put that on request for a future agenda okay and the second one will be um an addition to our quar and printing policy um but I have to get I have to
get more information from the Department of uh Child Services because they they have a a new uh way to check into um individuals who have been involved in child abuse and that's been
kind of found that yes there was an abuse situation it's been pursued by DCF so there's there's a new way to look up kind of another enhancement to um protecting our kids so I'm getting that information again from um I'm actually
getting from another superintendent who was able to put together an addition to their policy I just want to run it by our our legal first and then um see if the policy committee can talk discuss that yeah and I think we you and I can talk about whether I think it you know
probably makes sense to put it on this our agenda so that we can discuss putting it sending it to we'll talk about where that okay I just wasn't sure how you want to do that so can I ask a question and then add maybe one or two things to a future meeting um the school
phone policy Eric of course I've been hearing about that but um is that something that has to go through the school committee or will that be done at the individual School level so interesting question it will be done at the school level once the school committee approves the student handbook
so it becomes so interesting the facto it becomes packed part of the school handbook that gets approved by the school committee so you'll you'll see it before that because I think we'll have Brian yeah um come and present it once they get it finalized because I've got a bunch of questions on yeah that that I
want a chance to ask yeah I think it's important to have Brian come and present it they'll talk about the process and then um certainly feel free to email Brian questions too he's been kneed deep in it with a they have a committee that have been focus groups things yeah um
and the other thing was can we continue our exploration on on swapping the middle school and high school times start times with the Elementary start times I just don't want that to drop off the face of the planet sure y thank you
we have to come up with a a process for that because think we just kind of let it flat out and then we did yeah yeah okay we can do that yep I I set a calculator or right calendar reminder that in six months I would no that's good for you
say something again okay um all right anybody have anything else the longest list I think got okay do you have a second all right uh all those in favor we are adjourned at 802